Vrad

No Value

Reviewed: 03-26-13

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story didn't provide me with any value toward improving my leadership skills. Instead, it focused on a long, drawn-out story of an obviously wrong way to lead. Then it turned to a religious view that is apparently needed in order to become a good leader. What?! To be quite honest, I couldn't force myself to finish it after I had already committed to a third of it.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Multipliers. I've listened to it twice already and it's one of the best leadership books out there.

How could the performance have been better?

It's hard to make it better when the underlying story is so poor.

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Appreciate the World Around You

Reviewed: 04-20-12

What did you love best about The Magic of Reality?

This captures a lot of what I have always felt. People see magic behind the beauty and intricacy of everything around us. I just see the beauty of science as it helps us appreciate the existence of the universe and everything within it. Putting magic behind it can't possibly give people the same sense of appreciation as when you force the brain to think and have it come to strunning realizations. It's like living inside the matrix, which is just a smoke screen. But unlike the matrix, the world outside is much more amazing than inside. Come join me outside of the matrix :)

What did you like best about this story?

This is a book that adults and even early teenagers can really get into. It gives a great biology background and also delves into other sciences (although Dawkins discloses that biology is his real expertise). Instead of magical, you realize that the existence of the universe and everything within it is amazing and consistent with known sciences (without a need to resort to magic or pseudo-sciences).

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Drop the Ego

Reviewed: 04-20-12

What made the experience of listening to A New Earth the most enjoyable?

This is a great book to help you take a good perspective on life. I can feel myself becoming even happier (I was a happy person before I read the book) by following the author's concepts. The key idea is that our brain has evolved to develop strong self awareness. We need to use this self-awareness to supress some of the primative instincts still left over from our earlier periods of evolution. We need to stop trying to compare ourselves with others. We shouldn't want to keep up with the Jones's, but rather be happy that they have things that make them happy. We need to assume positive intent with others. We need to stop dwelling on what could have been and look to history only to the extent that it will help you make better choices in the future. Don't feel mad at the person who cut you off in traffic, but rather feel symphathy for them since they may be going through a tough time or didn't have a nurturing upbringing.The concepts are easy to say, but will take some time to retrain your brain to think more positively. So far, this training is paying dividends through a better outlook on life.I didn't give 5 stars on the story because I didn't like (slight) references to unseen energy. Since normal science seems to be consistent with the concepts, there is no need to delve into pseudo-science. It's quite possible that I misinterpreted the author's actual intent with this energy, and if that's the case, I apologize. Regardless, I think it's a great listen.

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Very Intellectual and Thought Provoking

Reviewed: 02-20-11

Some of the concepts aren't necessarily new, but Sam Harris is able to beautifully articulate how morality can be studied by science. I especially appreciate the recognition that there are many gray areas in discussions of morality, unlike the rigid and sometimes harmful morality that is derived from various religious texts. At times, the book does seem to be treating religious texts as a pinata, but mostly it's required to demonstrate the validity of arguments being made.
If you are willing to listen to philosophical thinking on morality with an open mind, you will love this audiobook. But, if you want to set your thoughts in concrete because you're terrified of change, then you probably should skip this book.

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2 people found this helpful